Stanley Laman Group Ltd. Sells 10,917 Shares of Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF)

Stanley Laman Group Ltd. reduced its stake in Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) by 22.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 36,978 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 10,917 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd.’s holdings in Stifel Financial were worth $3,923,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SF. FMR LLC raised its stake in Stifel Financial by 18.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,956,412 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $747,107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,256,595 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Stifel Financial by 78.3% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,958,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $183,923,000 after purchasing an additional 860,465 shares in the last quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Stifel Financial in the third quarter valued at approximately $12,290,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Stifel Financial by 4.7% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,464,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $137,509,000 after purchasing an additional 65,113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Stifel Financial by 316.0% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 69,761 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,400,000 after purchasing an additional 52,991 shares in the last quarter. 82.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Stifel Financial Trading Down 0.4 %

SF stock opened at $107.92 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.82. Stifel Financial Corp. has a one year low of $72.78 and a one year high of $120.64. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $110.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $101.41. The company has a market capitalization of $11.05 billion, a PE ratio of 17.29 and a beta of 1.11.

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.27. Stifel Financial had a net margin of 14.00% and a return on equity of 16.59%. As a group, analysts predict that Stifel Financial Corp. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stifel Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. This is an increase from Stifel Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Stifel Financial’s payout ratio is presently 26.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Stifel Financial from $128.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Stifel Financial from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Stifel Financial from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Stifel Financial from $116.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Stifel Financial from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.71.

Stifel Financial Profile

Stifel Financial Corp., a financial services and bank holding company, provides retail and institutional wealth management, and investment banking services to individual investors, corporations, municipalities, and institutions in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Global Wealth Management, Institutional Group, and Other.